The keel of the Titanic was laid on 31.03.1909 at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Northern Ireland. The liner was equipped with the ultimate in elegance and luxury for service with the noted transatlantic White Star Line. Two years later, on 31.05.1911 the Titanic was launched. With a length of 269.04 m, a beam of 28.19 m and a tonnage of 46,320 GRT, in 1912 she was the largest ship in the world. Captain Edward John Smith transferred from her sister ship the Olympic specifically for the maiden voyage of the Titanic. On Wednesday 10.04.1912 she set out from Southampton. Cherbourg (France) and Queenstown (Ireland) were stops on the way to New York (USA). The voyage proceeded without problems until, following numerous warnings of icebergs, on Sunday (14.04.1912) at about 23.40 hours (ship's time) the look-out's bell rang out. The ship scraped against the iceberg on the starboard side and after two hours and forty minutes in the icy waters of the Atlantic she sank. Only 712 souls survived this disaster.